23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Nederland

23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Nederland was a German Waffen-SS division that was active from February 1941 to May 1945. The division was composed of volunteers from the Netherlands, and it was sent to the front at the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. On 6 February 1943, General Hendrik Seyffardt was assassinated by the Dutch Resistance. In April 1943, the division was called back to Germany, and Jurgen Wagner became the division's new commander. In September 1943, the division joined Felix Steiner's III Panzer Corps in the Independent State of Croatia, and the brigade engaged in operations against the Yugoslav Partisans. On 25 December 1943, the brigade was deemed ready for the front and was moved to Oranienbaum in Army Group North's sector. In January 1944, during the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive, Kirill Meretskov's Soviet forces drove the division back, and it fought at the Narva bridgehead in Estonia. In mid-October 1944, the division withdrew to Gumi-Wolmar in Latvia, and the division was trapped in the Courland Pocket. On 26 January 1945, the division was ordered to evacuate the pocket by sea and report to the Swinemunde-Stettin area to participate in the defense of the Oder line. On 4 February 1945, the division withdrew into Germany, and it took part in the Operation Solstice counterattack in Pomerania later that month. The division split into two kampfgruppen, with one being pushed back to Parchim before surrendering to the US Army in the west, while the other one was destroyed at the Battle of Halbe.